Home Improvement

I'm so glad this weekend is going to be nice outside.  We don't have any plans dependent on the weather, I just am tired of indoor projects.

Since this month has started out with back to back rainy weekends, Kel and I have used our indoor time to get a few little projects done around the house.  We originally planned to just do a backsplash in the kitchen but a trip to Lowe's is like a trip to the grocery store; I always come home with more than I intended and spend way more than planned. 

As is always the case with our house, nothing is as simple as it should be.  In this case, the window above the sink has a frame around it that made it impossible to get a tile along the gap between the counter top and the frame.  I ended up having to cut part of it out and I'm really glad I did because it really ties the room together. 

Our other project, which we kidded ourselves that we could do the same weekend as the kitchen, was to replace the awful floor in our entryway.  This project wasn't as bad.  We ripped up the old outdated linoleum and simply stuck the new fake wood pieces down.  We were able to cut each piece with a
box cutter and the hardest part was just laying each piece out so the pattern looked good.  I put Kelly in charge of that and she did a great job.  Finally a fairly simple and inexpensive project. 

Before and after.

One Final Project

Before                                                                                            After

When we bought our house back in 2009 we knew it was filled with projects.  Every room in the house was in need of an update, from the dingy carpet to the tacky wallpaper, our house seemed stuck in the 70s.

Slowly over these past three years we have worked to get it updated.  Sometimes it was tough keeping focused on one project at a time.  Earlier this week we finally finished up the last major project, the main bathroom.

Seven trips to Lowe's, two trips to Ollie's and once to the dump, it's finally complete.  We've got a new toilet, sink and vanity, flooring, shelving, pretty much everything except the tub.  The biggest improvement was probably painting the walls as the yellow flower wallpaper was a jumbled mess.

Overall the project went well and I wish we would have done this project three years ago.

Let there be Light

Owning a house can be a blessing and a curse.  When things go wrong you can't just call the landlord and get it fixed, it's either pay or do it yourself.  Being a cheap person, most of the time I choose to go it alone. Although there are a few things I don't mess with, like plumbing or cutting down huge pine trees.

When I do go it the DIY route I never really know how things are going to turn out.  Sometimes the simplest projects turn out to be a real pain and sometimes things I think are going to be horrible turn out simple.  Today I experienced the latter.

One of the first things I did when we moved in was install a ceiling fan in our bedroom.  It really wasn't too difficult and it's been a great way to keep our bedroom a little cooler during these killer summers.  A few months ago the pull cord mechanism on the ceiling fan light jammed and stopped working.  Since then we have been spending a lot of time in our bedroom fumbling in the dark. 

The biggest reason I was procrastinating fixing the light was simply a lack of confidence that I was going to be able to complete the project.  I hate getting halfway through fixing something and then getting stuck.  I've pulled apart the lawnmower numerous times only to get stuck and have to put it back still broken.  Fortunately today was nothing like that.

It really only took me about 15 minutes to complete the ceiling fan repair.  Once I figured out that I could detach the light fixture from the fan and do all the work on the floor it was a breeze.  So in case you ever need to fix a light pull cord here is how easy it is. First step, turn off the power!  No need to take the risk of electrocution.  Next was the key step of unscrewing the light fixture and detaching the wiring harness to allow working on the ground and not with my hands above my head the whole time. 


After removing the old wire light switch that controlled the pull chain from the housing unit I simply unscrewed the wire nuts that were connecting it to the other wires and connected the new wire switch.  The switch was around $3 at Lowe's so the cost of this project was really nice.  With the wires connected it was a simple pop in and screw the light unit back onto the fan.  I also picked up an anchor chain accessory so we would be able to easily know which chain was which and we had light again.

Even a simple project like this makes me feel good.  Though the thought of these home projects feels daunting sometimes I do get a strong feeling of satisfaction from completing it.  It's one of those things that makes me feel grown up.